Forcing Steve Jobs out of Apple was a mistake: John Sculley

Ex-Apple CEO John Sculley tells TOI that he regrets the decision taken in 1985 by the Apple board of directors to move Jobs out of the company.

| TNN | Updated: Apr 18, 2014, 09:34AM IST

<font color="#222222" face="Georgia, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif">As he gears up to s... Read More

NEW DELHI: John Sculley was hired from PepsiCo by the iconic but temperamental Steve Jobs with a legendary pitch, “Do you want to sell sugared water for the rest of your life? Or, do you want to come with me and change the world?” Sculley went on to join Apple, but ended up becoming part of a corporate legend by firing Jobs from the company he had founded. Jobs came back later and turned around the then-ailing Apple into the world’s biggest technology company.

As he gears up to start a new venture focused around India for selling low-end mobile phones (not competing with Apple’s top-notch devices), Sculley — now 75 — tells TOI that he regrets the decision taken in 1985 by the Apple board of directors to move Jobs out of the company. “I think, in hindsight, for the founder to leave was a mistake and I was a part of that. But, Steve in 1985 was not the same as the Steve in 1997. By the time he came back, he was a much more matured and experienced executive, while back in the eighties, he was still a young learning executive.”

Sculley, who was one of the stars in the US corporate world after doing wonders for PepsiCo, was hired by Apple to get consumer marketing insights into the technology world. However, he developed differences with Jobs over the issue of subsidizing the struggling Macintosh by digging into the resources earned from the profitable Apple 2. Sculley opposed the move. “That was all the profit of the company. I never thought there was merit in lowering the price of the Macintosh. I never regretted that decision.”

However, he still feels that some way would have been found to have them both work for the company and this could have been facilitated by Apple’s board then. “I think there could have been a way, in hindsight, where Steve and I did not need to have a confrontation, and we could have worked it out. And, perhaps the board could have played a bigger role in that. But you can’t change history.”

Sculley-founded Inflexionpoint, an IT and telecom supply chain company, will be launching its phones in India under the Obi Mobiles brand. While the devices will be sourced from China, as is being done by most of the phone companies, Sculley feels that the India-experienced team chosen for the venture will help them crack the market faster. Ajay Sharma, who was head of smartphone division with homegrown maker Micromax, has been hired as CEO for Obi Mobiles, while some other officials have been poached from domestic companies.

Sculley said while the Indian smartphone market remains competitive, the high-paced growth here means that there is space for everyone. “We feel that this is the right time to enter the Indian smartphone market as sales are booming and there is a shift from 2G to 3G and further to 4G. We feel there is an opportunity to build another brand in India that would combine global branding skills that we have learnt around the world with companies like Apple and Pepsi and to go into price points that are more like the local brands — in the Rs 5,000 to Rs 8,000 range. That is what we will do.”

Sculley said he admires Indian companies like Micromax and Karbonn, who have managed to corner a significant market share in India and are also exporting products. “They have done well and will continue to do so. Our goal is not to replace them, but to come and help expand the market even faster.”

When asked about why an Indian brand has so far not made it big globally like an Apple or a Microsoft, he said they are not very keen to take risks. “Indian culture does not give you permission to fail in a manner the Silicon Valley does. In the West, it is part of a learning curve and there is no penalty. In fact, if you have not failed, you have not taken any risk.”

Sculley is a money minded person, if we see from Apple history. Yes he is good in marketing, but will not be really helpful if he is only for money. He is starting a company with another person in India. I'm sure it will not benefit people really. It is a mistake Apple hired him. If Steve known he is for money, then he will not be in Apple history. He in Apple history one way tells us clearly Apple is not for money and for people. Steve fired those peoples who are not willing to be part of Apples objective. He fired a programmer in the meeting when he not accepting the need for different type of Font faces. A company to be successful every thing part of it should be aligned to companies objectives, else go away.

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